About Us

Dora
I like nice things and enjoy creating. My home is not picture perfect, my decor does not match most of the time and I usually have stuff scattered around where it does not belong. I do not have vinyl labels on every bin or even have a bin for everything or have the newest, hottest DIY projects.  If I do make something trendy, it is either by accident or because I simply find a good use for it in my own life.

 I am an LDS home schooling mom of 4 boys and a baby girl. I was born and raised in Hungary and even though I have spent most of my life in the US, I still have a soft spot for all things Hungarian.

Admission: I only post my best projects. Not everything I make turns out, actually most things I make are not worth the time it takes to blog about. Do you really want to read about all the cub scout and scout patches I have to keep sewing on or how many pants I have to mend a week? Or the numerous pajama pants I make on a regular basis? Probably not.

This blog is a small part of me and therefore does not give an accurate picture of who I am. I have gone back and forth on being more open in public. Right now my comfort zone for sharing more of my personal life is extremely limited - so, you will not get much of what my life is really like.  I have ups and downs like everyone else. I get sad, frustrated, angry. I have personal challenges like most people out there and I do not live in a fairy tale. Life is hard, busy and full of challenges. I try to make the best of life like everyone else. Crafting is just an outlet for me. Sometimes I wish I were a supermodel/superwoman type who can do it all and be super talented at everything and look fabulous doing it - silly, I know. I don't wear cute clothes and my hair is in a ponytail most of the time.  I have to clean my house and cook dinner everyday and in the meantime try to juggle kids, homeschooling, life in general. And try to fit in crafting. Therefore, I carefully choose what I post about, because I do not want to waste your time or mine.  I also do not blog regularly. Just whenever I have the time. Which is not that often.

One last thing.  I do not have a nice camera, just a little point-and-shoot. And I am OK with that.

Rachel

I love to make things, but generally don't have a clue about what's hot, by the time trends filter down to me they're usually on their way out.  Either that or I do things way before they're cool and then when I've moved on it finally becomes a thing.  (I taught my first baby to sign in 1998!  Before the Signing Time videos!)  One way or another, I always seem to be out of sync with most of my contemporaries, but it's never bothered me.  As Robert Waller said (way, way before he wrote Bridges of Madison County, dangit), "You have fewer people at your funeral but you get more reading time."  That's kind of my motto.

How to introduce myself?  I remember in my early mothering days, I belonged to this great group of natural mamas, and we'd all put these signature lines on our emails, "Homebirthing, extended breastfeeding, baby-wearing, cloth-diapering, non-vaxing, EC'ing, all natural mama of three."  That's one of the shorter examples, they could get even longer.  Sometimes those tag lines seemed like the awesomest street cred ever, and sometimes I'd wonder if we were posturing a little too much, even trying to outdo each other.  I think most of us started out with maybe one or two things that were really significant to us at the time, like "Homebirthing, breastfeeding mama and proud of it!", and then we'd realize, "Hey, there's more to me than just those two things."  And so we'd add to the list, trying to represent a well-rounded picture of ourselves.  But at some point I realized the futility of that task.  You can't describe a human being with a list of adjectives, no matter long you go on.  Every single time we describe ourselves, we're presenting a limited set of facts, custom tailored to the audience we're currently playing to.  That's one thing that's so alluring about the internet, you can get people to admire you by carefully selecting what parts of you they get to see, and carefully editing out the parts you're not so proud of.  Does that mean I'm going to share my deepest insecurities right here in this introduction?  Of course not.  Total strangers, and even worse, friends and family might read this.  So I'll give you a several carefully selected, limited sets of facts, because that's what this 'about' page is for.  Here they are:

The set of personal pronouns (I think that's what they are) that apply to me:
{mother, wife, daughter, sister, niece, aunt, cousin, friend, woman}

The set of things I do when I'm avoiding real work and my husband's not available to drag into a deep philosophical discussion:
{read books, knit, sew, Facebook, read blogs,call a friend, eat chocolate}

The set of things I do that could be considered work but I sometimes enjoy:
{cooking, gardening, teaching my kids, shopping at the farmer's markets}

The set of things I have to do regularly but have not learned to enjoy:
{exercising, cleaning, brushing my teeth, grocery shopping}

The set of things I do because I 'should' that I'm always glad I did afterward:
{go to church, read my scriptures, write in my journal}

The set of things I almost never stop doing, besides breathing:
{worrying about and loving my kids, husband and family, praying, worrying that I'm doing it all wrong}